The Zen Master's Dance - 11 - Fukan Zazengi (Bottom of p. 45 to End of Chapter)

[Jundo]

Well, we come to the Fukanzazengi Big Zen Zinger of a Finish!

I would like to point out how many elements of trust, "method acting," felt embodiment, that there are in this section. One does not merely sit, waiting for something to happen because one is sitting there, in a certain posture.

Rather, one must sit with certain feelings, confidence, assumptions and attitudes about sitting, such as:

- To practice (Zazen) wholeheartedly is itself attaining the truth ...

- To sit is itself the 'Buddha Seal' of the Buddhas and Ancestors ...

- There is no other place to go to find it by wandering around ...

Why do you think such a trust in like truths and "method acting" is important in Zazen? Do you do so when you sit?

Gassho, J

[Tairin]

Why do you think such a trust in like truths and "method acting" is important in Zazen? Do you do so when you sit?

I think I used to back when I started. It helped to have some sort of goal to get started although these are pretty soft goals.

I don’t tend to need anchors much any more. I just sit. If I find my mind has wandered I simply return to just sitting. Repeatedly over and over and over.


Tairin
sat today and lah

[Koriki]

I think the trust in truths is helped by stories of the Zen ancestors and from our own experiences with sitting. Mindset can also help us to settle into a sit a little quicker vs struggling to reel in our thoughts at the beginning of the sit. I do try to have the right mindset when I choose to sit. Sometimes it's simply sitting as an act of resistance to my striving mind. A form of protest.

Gassho,
Koriki
s@lah

[Houzan]

I feel this is the very heart of just sitting. Without it I feel sitting easily can become a mindfulness exercise or a way of calming down. I feel this trust is a beautiful way of explaining shinjin datsuraku - dropping bodymind. When I fully trust that there is nothing to achieve, that everything is perfect as it is, there is no need to do anything so I stop adding things, I stop judging. When there is no judging there is no “I”, and when this “I” disappears, the borders between self and the world starts to dissolve.

The beauty of this is when I sit and my whole sitting is just one long thought train, a complete mess and torment, if - when the thought train finally lets me get off - I deeply trust that this mess is perfectly just as it is, it’s all been perfect sitting, Buddha’s seal.

I try to let this be the heart of my sitting. Sometimes it comes naturally. Sometimes, when tense, I bow and quietly recite a gatha to help open that trust.

Gassho, Hōzan
satlah

[Bob-Midwest]

I have always sat for the same reason a true writer writes or musician plays - there is no other choice. Only I did not realize this for many decades. There is no other explanation why I was drawn to this as a teen or earlier.

Not a big fan of Dogen’s claim and that of the Tibetans and others that having a human body and life is “extreme good fortune.”
I sit and watch all animals, plants and stone and they just are, not imagining themselves to be other. That is the realm of the deluded human mind.

Theology placing animals and the rest of creation lower than human is of course written by humans with no real perception of the experience/consciousness of the other. Not trying to convince others of this, by the way, so no need for a defense.

sat,lah
bob

[Hosui]

I don’t consider myself a method actor when it comes to zazen, despite being one with Robert De Niro — and him-with-me and the rest of the universe. Instead, in my old age, I’m realising there is no trust, truth, Buddhas, Ancestors, Seals, dusty foreign lands, or elephants — only flimsy (but helpful) ’conceptual expedients’ along these lines that convince me I’ve grasped Reality, when all it actually takes is for me to face up to the fact there’s nothing to hold onto in the first place (Prajnaparamita), and that I just have to let go. Even trust gets in the way here. For me right now, what’s more important is the activity I’m doing at this (each) moment, since only this reveals Reality.

Gassho
Hosui
sat/lah

[Heikyo]

Having trust in Zazen can be important for motivation. Sometimes I just have to trust that the act of Zazen is in itself enough and nothing else is needed. This is especially true when I do not want to do Zazen after a bad day at work, or I begin to question what I am doing. “Method acting” Zazen helps me get through this mindset. This is not ‘going through the motions’ of Zazen, but voluntarily handing myself over to the action of just sitting, knowing that even if it does not go how I expect it to go, it is still good, because it is Zazen.

Gassho
Heikyo
Sat today, LAH

[Hokuu]

Why do you think such a trust in like truths and "method acting" is important in Zazen?

I think it is important. In my practice, I see the difference between sitting with no trust/faith whatsoever and sitting with trust/faith in the method. The former doesn't differ from all the activities born of the deluded mind; the latter is, I trust, a manifestation of reality itself, so to speak. Does it mean that trust/faith in the method is a requirement for a "good" zazen? On a practical level, I believe it is.

Do you do so when you sit?

Besides sitting and breathing itself, I aim to be here and nowhere else. When distracted, I remind myself that the distraction is part of the practice too, but come back to being here anyway.

Gassho
Hokuu
satlah

[Furyu]

As I bow to the zafu before zazen, I often remind myself that it is the "seat of enlightenment" or the "seat of the Buddha", just to set the tone. Occasionally, in Zazen, I will also conjure up that thought if I find that my mind is drifting. Sometimes, as I sit, I imagine buddha sitting there in the same time and space. Just momentarily, to set the tone, to be able to sit with confidence. After that, I give it no more thought. I think it is a good reminder that buddha-mind is to be found anywhere. As I sit, there are moments of clarity, sometimes more, sometimes less. I trust that with regular practice, the balance might shift naturally, but without expecting it to. Zazen is a string of awareness, and as we sit, sometimes buddha-mind appears, like a pearl on the necklace. As we practice, more pearls may actualize, until they become indistinguishable one moment to the next - one bright pearl.

Gasshō
Fūryū
sat-lah

[Chikyou]

This is something that I have grappled with in various ways since I started practicing a few years ago. Maybe it’s my constantly running neurodivergent mind or maybe it’s just the way it is for everyone, but I’ve certainly felt in the past that I struggled to embody the “right” mindset and somehow I still do. At some point along the way, though, I started to realize that mind cloudy or clear, “good” zazen or “bad” zazen, it’s all as it is, that moment, zazen. (And also that the next sit is another opportunity). My practice isn’t the struggle now that it was back then. It has become light, easy. It will be interesting to see what it’s like for me a few years from now.

Gassho,
SatLah,
Chikyō